Virus balance

It is arguable whether the cost of precautions against the spread of coronavirus is proportionate to the number of lives they will save. Whether one will feel in retrospect that we got the balance right may depend upon one’s relationship to those who die.

Yet even if this epidemic is less severe than expected, we always face the possibility of one so devastating as to justify the most draconian of measures to hold it at bay.

There may have been people saying: “We mustn’t interfere with trade” as the Black Death approached, but we know they soon had reason to regret this. It would be useful to treat our current situation as a rehearsal for such an event.

We need to develop the mental or moral preparedness to impose and accept a clampdown on international travel which is early and hard, even if the alarm may prove to be false. Otherwise we will be behind the game, waiting for public opinion to catch up and run ahead when it is too late.

Anyone who claims to agree with Greta Thunberg can hardly object to an occasional downturn in economic growth or a “no-fly February”.

The dip in air travel after 9/11 showed that many travellers are willing to see their journey as non-essential when it is their own lives at stake.

Despite the surprise endorsement from top Scottish Tories, and I can understand why they did it, I am afraid the First Minister’s unseemly actions in hand-bagging her way to the front of the post-cobra media recently were inexcusable and merely demeaned Scotland as well as herself.

I am no fan of Boris Johnson, but he conducted himself with dignity and grace in comparison.

Anyone from any party trying to politicise the coronavirus situation is beneath contempt. Yet I am afraid that is exactly what the First Minister was attempting to do.

Coronavirus does not recognise the borders and perceived differences in our fellow islanders upon which Nicola Sturgeon seems to base her entire political ethos.

ALEXANDER MCKAY New Cut Rigg, Edinburgh

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James Watson (Letters, 14 March) is “disgusted that Nicola Sturgeon decided to jump the gun and seek to grab the glory of pontificating on Cobra”. This is a charge roundly refuted by Jackson Carlaw and Adam Tomkins among others and reinforced in The Scotsman editorial of the same day.

Mr Watson may not like it, but Ms Sturgeon gave advance notice that she would be speaking to the media at a specific time and carried that through. He might like to give some critical thought as to why the Prime Minister was unable to gather his thoughts quickly enough to also make a timeous statement.

GILL TURNER Derby Street, Edinburgh

The World Health Organisation has criticised government chief scientific officer Sir Partick Vallance’s misplaced